Monday, April 26, 2010

Cool as Vulnerable

"We may have stumbled upon a domestic operation. Enough suspicious activity has been detected to elevate it to 'probable' status. Our connection may not be visible. It could be a legacy account that has been overlooked."

Messages of this type were rare these days. Not that the threat had gone away, far from it. It was that cloaking methods had evolved to such high sophistication that the old detection techniques were rendered all but obsolete. Except in the case where daemons and the like were running unnoticed. And that, in turn, exposed a port.

The biologic precedent (there always is one) could have gone by several names in the past. For some reason, Freudian Slip came to mind. At a certain level of complexity and organization, the managing entity can no longer control low-level detail. Delegation ensues. Checks and balances can be put in place but are always less than perfect at preventing unwanted access. Reasons vary from near random to coincidental.

Especially vulnerable are those who harvest the vulnerabilities of others, organizations and/or individuals. If that is the case here, the induction pattern library could be put to very good use. The friendly approach is to dispassionately repair or remove the dysfunctional entity and do it without the judgement baggage.

"With a little help from my friends." the Lennon-McCartney lyric played in his head as he chuckled.